1 72 On the Public Utility of Medical Institutions, 



the metropolis bul ibroughout the kingdom, reflects the 

 highest honour on the national character. This has long 

 been acknowledged; and it could not fail to be highly grati- 

 fying to the public, who contribute so largely towards their 

 support, to have a statement published annually of the re- 

 ceipts and disbursements of each institution, vvith an account 

 of the benefits derived from them to the diseased poor, f 

 do not think this desirable object is sufficiently attained, by 

 the committees of a few charities circulating a report of 

 the finances of the institutions over which tliey preside, 

 among their own members or subscribers The object in 

 view would, I conceive, be best attained by means of sonve 

 periodical work, where the reports should be recorded and 

 referred to ; by which the advatitages of each charity to the 

 diseased poar \\ou\(\hQ. made evident; and a liberal public 

 would in a few years be enabled to form a correct judg- 

 ment as to what kind of charitable institutions was best 

 entitled to their munificence. 



.The frequent, and in some instances successful, attempts 

 to depreciate the utility of dispensaries, have led to these re- 

 marks ; and when it is known that for an annual sum of 

 2,OOOZ, upwards of 9,000 of the diseased poor are an- 

 HUiilly admitted and attended in three of these institutions 

 ill London, (those persons being visited at their own houses 

 who are too ill to go to ihe charity,) it must be confessed 

 th2L\ dispensaries d^^t son\t\\!h'A\ more \\v3A\ '''so many hot- 

 beds calculated to rear and cherish their plants* for the 

 public service" 



It is not my intention at present to analyse the motives 

 which probably gave rise to the above and many similar 

 observations, it being sufficient to record the fact; neither do 

 I mean to advance any thing that should militate in the 

 least against the many truly valuable public hospitals; but 

 only to observe, that the great l3E^'EFlT derived by each ia- 

 dividnal inhabitant of these asylums prevents its being ex- 

 tended to the numbers requiring aid, their establishnient not 

 being of sufficient magnitude to lodge and feed all the 

 4is<:a:>ed poor : nor would it be sound policy to extend their 

 * The rn?<lical ofiicers. 



benefits 



